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MedStar Health Vendor Access Program: One Systems Story
CHERYL HARDY, RN, BSN, MAS
Ever since the publication of the Institute of Medicines To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Sys
tem,1 there has been an increased, nationwide focus on identifying risks to patients and decreasing or eliminating these risks to create a safer patient environment. Perioperative nursing managers at MedStar Health, a not-for-profit, community-based health care organization serving the Baltimore, Maryland/ Washington, DC, area, identified the presence of sales and service vendor representatives in the systems facilities as a potential patient safety issue.
Vendor representatives frequently access restricted areas such as the OR or cardiac catheterization laboratory during patient procedures. Although vendor representatives have limited access to confidential patient information, MedStar Health had no documentation of criminal background checks, substance abuse testing, or health status for these individuals.
Vendor representatives also frequently are present during nurse or physician inservice programs on equipment or procedures; however, MedStar Health had no documentation to verify the representatives education or certification. Concern about this lack of information and competency validation prompted peri-operative nursing managers at MedStar Health to create a corporate vendor badging system for all representatives entering a MedStar Health facility for any business-related purposes.
THE MEDSTAR HEALTH SYSTEM
MedStar Health comprises seven hospitals and more than 25 diversified businesses with more than 23,000 employees and 4,600 affiliated physicians. It is the largest health system in the Baltimore,
Maryland/Washington, DC, region, caring for more than half a million patients each year. MedStar Health has more than 130 ORs, 35 cardiac catheterization laboratories, and more than 350,000 emergency department visits annually.
MedStar Health constantly strives to become more efficient and effective in all areas of patient and employee safety. Processes, procedures, and practices to ensure patient safety are continually examined, monitored, and updated through a variety of mechanisms and methods. The complexity of coordinating a system of this size around an identified, system-level safety issue requires detailed planning and a competent communication strategy, so personnel in the Resource Management Department (RMD), MedStar Healths internal performance improvement consulting team, assisted personnel in the Corporate Materials Management
ABSTRACT
SALES OR SERVICE CALLS by vendor representatives were identified as a potential patient safety issue in a Baltimore, Maryland/Washington, DC, hospital system.